Friday, 21 December 2012

The reform of company law in Ireland moves closer following work begun by the Company Law Review Group. Earlier today a copy of the Companies Bill 2012 as introduced in the Dáil Éireann was published: see here (pdf, 8.8MB) or, separately, Parts 1 to 15 (pdf, 6.7MB) and Parts 16 to 24 (pdf, 2MB). An explanatory memorandum is available here (pdf, 1.5MB) and a much shorter press release, highlighting some of the changes being implemented, is available here. The Bill's progress can be followed here.

The Bill consolidates the existing 16 Companies Acts, dating from 1963 to 2012, into a single Act as well as introducing reforms including the codification of directors' duties, permitting a private company limited by shares to be formed with one director and in certain contexts removing the requirement for court approval. According to the press release published by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, the Bill is the "largest substantive piece of legislation in the history of the State".

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At Aston I teach courses in company law, corporate governance, securities law, financial regulation and taxation. This site primarily supports my company (corporate) law and governance teaching and to a lesser extent the other subjects I teach. It is primarily an online notepad where I record important developments, news and other items that interest me. It is also a portal providing quick access to the main corporate law and governance primary materials, news sources and relevant organisations (scroll down to see the links).

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